Don't worry, HP is here to stay: Whitman

HP CEO Meg Whitman has set out to reassure attendees of the HP World Tour event in Beijing, China, that the vendor still has a bright future and will be sticking around for many years to come.

After 20 months as the top dog of HP, Whitman said she has travelled to China three times, and met with 525 local customers as well as 225 technology partners. She said that one of the main concerns she has heard from Chinese customers and partners concerns HP's future.

The company has a diverse IT portfolio, ranging from servers and PCs to software and services, but it is currently struggling on all fronts. In HP's quarterly results in May, the vendor saw a decline in revenues across the board, although there were signs of a turnaround.

"You have to have confidence your partner will be here today, tomorrow, and the day after that," Whitman said. "And believe me, HP is here to stay."

She also said that HP has been working hard to develop products and services that will help customers as the world shifts to a "new style of IT". This "new style of IT", according to Whitman, is a way of doing business driven by trends such as cloud, security, big data, and mobility.

"When these shifts happen, everything changes, and IT becomes even more important to your enterprise," she said.

This isn't exactly a new notion, and all the trends Whitman listed have been in existence and utilised for some time now. Many other players in the market have already rushed to address the challenges that cloud, security, big data, and mobility bring to businesses.

Still, Whitman is confident about HP's ability to compete.

"No other company can provide the connective tissue for companies transitioning to the 'new style of IT'," she said.

Spandas Lui attended HP World Tour as a guest of HP.